i'm thankful!

Wow, can you believe it’s thanksgiving tomorrow? Thanksgiving is late in the year, it’s when the holiday season kicks into high gear, when plants finally decide to put all growth on hold until next spring, when the weather becomes seriously colder, when animals start hibernating and we start cross country skiing….but it seems way to early for all of that. Where did the fall go?

Regardless, of where time went, or whether I am actually ready for winter to start descending, it is Thanks-giving, and so we should do just that. I’m thankful for so many things, it would be almost ridiculous to try and think of them all…. my family, my friends, the beauty of nature around me, the endless opportunities I’ve had in life and those that are on the horizon, the inner beauty of people I’ve come to know, my health and the health of my family and friends, the small joys in life, the big joys in life, the traveling I get to do, the love I am able to give and receive, the sacrifices people have made for me and my lifestyle, the satisfaction in the work I do and the landowners who make it possible, the hope that our generation has for the future, the earth and everything it makes possible…I could go on and on. Wow, you know, we really are very lucky people in this world. Not only in the physical needs sense, but the sense that we can so readily appreciate the small yet wonderful moments in life. Can you imagine life without being able to appreciate a little envelope of sea stones and shells? Or the words of a friend? Or sunsets over a desert/ocean? Or the plain old fact that HERE WE ARE!! That in and of itself is amazing!

cayons at their best

We left Friday morning and drove to just west of middle-of-nowhere-Utah. The drive was absolutely beautiful through canyons and red cliffs and over washes and, with the help of satellite radio, we had great bluegrass with us the whole way. We were on the trail by 1pm and hiked out over a flat, gently rolling red-sand area for a few miles and then dropped the 200 feet or so into The Canyon from the southern rim. The sandstone canyon twisted and turned and had all kinds of cool rock formations from lots of little holes, like swiss cheese, to big alcoves where we could climb up and sit, to super narrow slots, to wide open areas with different colors of sandstone marbled together. It’s simply amazing what wind and water can do to stone. I was in awe at every turn of the canyon floor. On our hike up the canyon we saw a beautiful panel of petroglyphs carved into a dark varnished area. After a few hours of hiking in the canyon we looked for a route up and out and found one out to the northern rim and by sunset we had found a perfect camping spot, on flat sandstone, facing south over a small tributary canyon and toward Jacob’s Chair (a tall red butte formation sticking up prominently up out of the desert.) After we found a water pocket and made dinner, we sat on the sandstone watching as the last light disappeared. Since it was nearly a new moon and there wasn’t an ounce of light pollution, the stars were absolutely gorgeous. I must have seen 7 shooting stars the hour we sat there.

After not a quite complete night’s sleep (I woke up at 2am and had to force myself out of my sleeping bag and all it’s warmness to go pee…not fun when it’s 20 degrees!) we were up with the sun and on to a whole day of exploring the canyon and it’s tributaries. We found some amazing slots which we had to wedge our way through, some lush seeps with fresh pools of water and fresh green plants, some more beautiful pictographs, and all kinds of rock formations. It was a perfect day, sunny and warm and still and we were wearing t-shirts. Mid afternoon we had to find a way out of the canyon toward camp….if we couldn’t find a way out it would have been a long 5 hours of backtracking to where we entered it. Luckily, with some scrambling, we made it out. Just then a little breeze picked up and one guy broke out his kite and we flew the kite and went looking for water pockets and arrowheads. A friend found ½ and arrowhead and another almost complete one. And it was another gorgeous night of shooting stars and coyotes howling and an owl hooting. It was surreal.

Sunday morning I woke up with ice on the end of my sleeping bag but as soon as the sun popped over the hill, it was gorgeous and warm. During breakfast a raven flew slowly overhead and we could hear every flap of its wings in the perfect stillness of the morning. Morning and late afternoon-evening are my favorite times of the day. That moment right before and right after the sun sets, that time between a warm glow and a dew setting. The colors can be so intense, the sounds sweet.

After some yoga on the edge of the canyon, I packed up and the three of us hiked in, down and then back out of the canyon …by then my feet had had it. So the last couple miles across the flatter stuff was a little more tedious but we made it to the car by 4 and decided to do the quick tour of Natural Bridges while we were driving by. The drive back toward Moab was gorgeous with the sun setting on Comb Ridge (a big sandstone ridge that runs north-south and so was brightly lit in reds and pinks during sunset), various mountain ranges, and all the buttes. I can’t even begin to describe how pretty it was. Wide open space, red buttes, snow capped mountains, sandstone formations, dark canyons cutting out from the road, all of these bathed in golden light changing to orangey then blushing rose then moving toward a deep red and eventually fading to lavender and blue-grey as the sun set. Sigh.

I still can’t believe how much beauty can be packed into such a few short days. Trips like that can sustain a person for a long time. I feel all rosy and happy and liberated inside. Mm.

somethings in life can make a big impression on a person. my heart goes out to all those whose family, and friends are on this site.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/

ooh, vegan icecream for everyone!

so, i found a new site... and it's so delicious. recipes for vegan icecream. who doesn't love icecream (even in this very cold weather that seems to have decended on us...at least i've been scraping ice off my windows in the morning...i won't go on), and who doesn't love saving animals from some cruel fate, or saving resources and helping limit pollution and environmental destruction? well, now you can do all of that in one move... make VEGAN ICECREAM, it's fun, easy, simple, delicious and will make you feel good about it too!

thanks agnes!

http://veganicecream.blogspot.com/

plastic is everywhere (no #3 for me)

some of my pillows have plastic (poly-fil). my toothbrush is plastic. the liner of my soymilk container and the bag for my cereal is plastic. my fridge handle is plastic as are the tubes that deliver water to my sink. my shampoo bottles, my sneakers, my fleece coat, my hair band, my lunch container, my toilet, my earing backs, the coating in the inside of canned peaches, the handle on my teapot, my cell phone, my savings cards on my key chain...ok, and i still haven't even made it to work...nor left the house. that's a lot of plastic. and then you hear all this stuff about plastics off-gassing or breaking down and causing health problems. and stuff about recycling plastics. so here are the main kinds of plastics (taken from wikipedia.com):

1. PETE (PET): Polyethylene Terephthalate - Commonly found on: 2-liter soft drink bottles, cooking oil bottles, peanut butter jars.
2. HDPE: High Density Polyethylene - Commonly found on: detergent bottles, milk jugs.
3. PVC: Polyvinyl Chloride - Commonly found on: plastic pipes, outdoor furniture, shrink-wrap, water bottles, salad dressing and liquid detergent containers. (**AVOID # 3**)
4. LDPE: Low Density Polyethylene - Commonly found on: dry-cleaning bags, produce bags, trash can liners, food storage containers.
5. PP: Polypropylene - Commonly found on: bottle caps, drinking straws
6. PS: Polystyrene - Commonly found on: packaging pellets or "Styrofoam peanuts," cups, plastic tableware, meat trays, take-away food clamshell containers
7. OTHER: Other - This plastic category, as its name of "other" implies, is any plastic other than the named #1–#6, Commonly found on: certain kinds of food containers and Tupperware.

And here's a bit from Grist.org about which plastics to avoid. Most important thing: remember "no 3 for me."

Ask Umbra On which plastics to avoid

a hopeful american

well, i think the elections show that americans were/are ready for a change. hopefully (and i am a person eternally full of hope) it will be a swift change for the better. and hopefully the middleclass will be heard and minorities will be heard and women will be heard and the environment will be heard and scientists will be heard and people's hopes will be heard...though for any real change to occur it will require a lot of listening, not just hearing.

this is a great first step... here's to the red, white and blue and hope for something new! (and something green too!)

100 mile thanksgiving

i've been reading about the 100-mile diet. essentially the premise there is that there is a ton of energy used to transport mangoes to Colorado from Mexico, and bananas to california from Brazil and soy beans from Peru and rice from china and apples form New Zealand…When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles....so the idea is, the more local food I eat the less of a negative impact I’ll have on the environment. Makes sense. And, the idea was implemented by a couple in BC who went on a 100mile diet for a year…(read their story here: http://100milediet.org/) So, that’s what Greg and I are going to try and do for Thanksgiving when i visit him. A 100 mile meal, meaning we’re going to try and use only foods that come from a 100 mile radius around Charlottesville. i'll report back on what we actually eat!

New Book: WorldChanging

oooh, cool. there's a new book comming out (or rather just out) called Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century. The summary of the book states "From consumer consciousness to a new vision for industry; non-toxic homes to refugee shelters; microfinance to effective philanthropy; socially responsible investing to starting a green business; citizen media to human rights; ecological economics to climate change, this is the most comprehensive, cutting-edge overview to date of what's possible in the near future -- if we decide to make it so."

I think a lot of the information is taken from (and it is layed out based on) the WorldChaning website. it has 7 sections: stuff, shelter, cities, community, business, politics, and planet. i think i'll get it. adn hopefully i get a chance to read it relatively soon. after i finish Michael Polland's excellent, fact-packed, intersting, terrifying: Omnivores Dilema and a book called Becoming Vegan and the list of fun novels i want to read. Here's a link to the new book: WorldChanging

god will be mad at you if you mock the mormons

So, Tuesday was Halloween and my last ceramics class. Which was great adn we did a Raku firing. I was out of there around 9:30 and on my way home when Bryan called. He was out and he told me to come out to the bar when I got home. So at 10pm I was on my bike headed all 3 blocks to the bar. Everyone was already standing outside (the bar had closed) in their Halloween costumes, quite raucous and crazy. Then we all rode our bikes to another bar and danced and sang to the juke box. Finally a Mullet-man (I have no idea who he was) announced that Brad and Joey’s (whoever they are) bonfire was ready.

So everyone was back on their bikes, cruising the 1 mile to their house. It must have been quite the scene, 20 semi-drunk people, on bikes, in costume, at 10:30pm cruising down Main St of a very small town. On our way one girl had a very slow-motion fall onto the curb, but she got right up and said she was fine. When we got to the bonfire we all stood around chatting. It was fun to meet a whole bunch of new people, though I don’t know how many I’ll recognize in the daylight, with no costumes.

About ½ hour after being there, right as I was thinking of riding home, the Mullet-man was talking madly into his cell then he turned to me and asked “are you sober?” I was. “Can you drive?” Yes. So I was led upstairs to the bathroom where the girl who had fallen was sitting, having had the cut in her knee cleaned out, with 10 drunk people looking on. It was a huge 2 inch gash, that definitely needed stitches. A guy gave me the keys to his truck and me and this girl, whom I’d never met, and her friend all got in the truck and I drove them to the Fruita emergency room…all 6 blocks away. (By the way, the ironic thing: the girls were dressed as Mormons on their mission who had gotten into a biking accident…with the black pants, white shirts, ties, backpacks, helmets and bikes plus the fake blood and fake scars.)

So we get there and the nurses had kind of a hard time figuring out what had happened, but they actually thought it was funny. And they called the doctor, who had to come in from another town. In the mean time, the Guy-who’s-truck-we’d-borrowed shows up, having removed his fake boobs, eyelashes, and most of his girly makeup and he’s just standing there cracking jokes. And finally the doctor arrives….he had long red hair in a ponytail, a mustache, old jeans, cowboy-boots, and a flannel shirt (but, no, he was not in costume). What a hoot. After looking at the girl’s knee he said “ooh, I can see your patella.” Lovely.

Meanwhile Guy-who’s-car-we-borrowed is taking pictures of this whole thing. Then, as the stitches commenced (7 internal, 8 external), in walked my friend Bryan and our friend Milan…they’d ridden their bikes over and somehow managed to bring my bike too. So there we are, 6 folks in the emergency room (all but two in costume), with three nurses who are laughing and a cowboy doctor. They guys were blowing up gloves on their heads and playing eye test games, and just thinking everything was so funny. At that point, 1am, I decided I was pretty much done with all that. And I rode my bike the less than one block home and had a great night’s sleep. Just way too short.

And that story is why:
1. you shouldn’t go out when you have no plans to stay out late
2. you shouldn’t dress as a Mormon on a mission in a bike wreck, god will be mad at you…especially this close to Utah (if you are Mormon, don’t be insulted, it’s totally meant in jest.)
3. you shouldn’t drink and ride